Making distinctive gifts for Christmas

There seems to be little doubt that Christmas takes the majority of us by storm. People do exist who can work up the zest for present giving in midsummer, and will sit sewing or knitting through the most lovely days laying up treasures of jumpers, chair-backs, and doilies for the holiday deluge.

These same prudent creatures are able to foresee in July that baby will be ready to blossom into his first party suit by Christmas, when Mary will be ripe for the sheer folly of a chiffon scarf, and that uncle's present immaculate knitted silk tie will have been privately confiscated.

But it is two weeks to Christmas, and whilst ordering "Christmas" fancies by the gross for the Sunday-school treat the ordinary woman is painfully conscious that unless both her brains and her fingers function with unusual rapidity this same job-lot treatment awaits her nearest and dearest.

Almost every woman has at least one person on her list to whom she wants to give something made by herself, not to speak of the numerous economics she had dreamt of effecting by the skilful use of her needle.

" She that is wise her time doth pris," and a little of this precious commodity expended at the outset in considering the resources at her disposal will be the greatest economy in the end.

The salvation of the " lightning" embroiderer lies in the striking and unusual effects she so often obtains, so one would suggest an attempt after bold and effective types of stitchery on homely and unusual materials that are as cheap as they are unexpected.

Greenhouse shading. [This], obtainable from any of the large seed merchants, in widths ranging from 54 to 72 inches, is an admirable medium for quick embroidery.

This soft, creamy netting has an open mesh that makes darning and needle weaving as simple as darning stockings, and far more interesting. A pair of sash curtains, hand-embroidered, is a present of distinction, but within the time and skill at the disposal of the amateur.

The narrow widths of the shading are just right for this type of curtain, and if cheered by applied bands of the new glazed chintz and finished with rows of simple tacking stitches in pastel shades of matching wools will result in a novel and dainty present.

Roller Towelling. Twilled unbleached sheetings and coarse huckabacks are effective for runners, mats, and luncheon sets. Cçommon roller towelling is a pleasing material, and may be had in narrow widths, and is so suitable and durable it repays one to use it as largely as possible. Canvas of the tough, hard-wearing kind is just the thing for a bureau scarf.

About this article

From the archive: making Christmas presents 11.12.1923

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 10.34 EST on Tuesday 11 December 1923.
It was last modified at 07.04 EDT on Friday 14 August 2009.
It was first published at 10.34 EST on Tuesday 12 December 2006.